Posted by schwarze on 10/22/2024 12:30:00 PM (view original):
Round 4

Since last round, 1943 Cardinals (redcped), 1919 White Sox (kstober), 1921 Indians (contrarian23) and the 1999 Athletics (njbigwig) have been taken and removed from my short list. I really wanted the A's here. Nice pick njbigwig.

When you know that you are playing a team in each league, each round's selection process ultimately comes down to having multiple choices for each franchise and determining which 2nd or 3rd choice you can live with, if your first choice gets taken. I had a lot of time so I built a bunch of teams I really liked, and this round was very difficult to narrow it down to just two choices. Teams that I strongly considered taking here include the 1988 Cubs (w/Maddux/Sandberg/Dawson/Palmeiro), the 1970 Cardinals (GIbson/Carlton/D.Allen/Torre/T.Simmons) and the 1991 White Sox (w/Thomas/Sosa/Raines/Fisk). All three were taken after I picked. But I do have backup choices that I like for the Cubs, Cardinals and White Sox. I also have multiple teams built for the Dodgers and Yankees so I plan on waiting on those franchises.

Team #7
1901 Pittsburgh Pirates
This was the last team in my original list (not include 1909 Browns - (I already an Orioles team). Not sure why people were not jumping on this team early. 1903 was the third Pirates season taken. 1901 was the 14th season taken. I can make the argument that 1901 is a better choice than 1903, with the addition of Jack Chesbro and Rube Waddell. Maybe folks just never looked at 1901, due to the rule of no players pre-1901 allowed. Anyway, give me Honus Wagner, Fred Clarke, Ginger Beaumont, Tommy Leach on offense plus Chesbro, Phillippe, Tannehill, Waddell on the mound. The catcher situation is ugly as I have to platoon five guys who have between 117 and 206 PA (four of the five can't hit). Still, I feel like this team is the best team in the division and should have no problem getting to at least 86 wins.

Team #8
1988 Cincinnati Reds
I agonized over this pick. I really wanted that 1970 Cardinals team. Imagine a team with Gibson & Carlton in that pitching-heavy era, but with an offense that included Ted Simmons, Dick Allen and Joe Torre, Oh and Jose Cruz shares the outfield with Lou Brock. I will concede that 2B and SS are pretty weak. I am having regrets passing on them. But as I am researching the Reds, after those mid 1970's seasons, they don't have much which is probably the reason the Reds franchise was the very last franchise to fill. If I passed on this team, my backup was the 1973 Reds (great offense, no so great pitching). Note that 1973 went shortly after. One of the things I liked about 1988 is the balance. The hitting is not as good as the Big Red Machine years, but Paul O'Neill, Eric Davis, Barry Larkin, Kal Daniels, Ken Griffey Sr, Buddy Bell should provide enough runs. The defense is very strong. The starting rotation of Jose Rijo x 2, Mario Soto and Danny Jackson is ok, not great, but the "Nasty Boys" bullpen is the strength of the team with Dibble, Franco, Charlton, Murphy, Rasmussen. Ironically, I found out later that DarthDurron was going to take the 1988 Reds with his next pick. He instead took the 1926 Reds. contrarian23 was going to take the 1926 Reds, instead of the 1970 Cardinals. So we go full circle. We're in the same division as Bill_James47's 1989 team, who he grabbed one pick before 1988... very similar rosters (he adds Kent Tekulve). I get Durham at 1B instead of Benzinger. I could see us both dueling it out with 85-86 wins.

The teams I was looking at here that got taken before my turn ('43 Cardinals 56-52, '19 White Sox 65-43, '21 Indians 64-44, '99 Athletics 67-41) are all doing very well. Two of the three teams I passed on: (1988 Cubs 61-47, 1970 Cardinals 60-48) are also doing well.

Team #7
No complaints so far, with the 1901 Pirates. The team is ranked 8th on offense, 3rd in pitching and 5th in defensive range. All of this equates to a strong 64-44 record (#2 seed). It's a dogfight in the NL. The 1903 Pirates are only 4 games behind me in the NL East and the 1913 (69-39), 1912 (62-46) and 1911 Pirates (61-47) are all over 60 wins (in the NL Central). My 1908 Honus Wagner (.373/.429/.506) has been great at the plate, although he does have a league-high 47 errors. My 1901 Honus Wagner is the worst 1901 Wagner in the league (.281/.378/.400), which is surprising since my home games are in the hitter-friendly Palace of the Fans. The other 1901 Wagners are hitting .369, .354, .319, .316, .310, .297.

The pitching staff is led by one of my favorites, '04 Jack Chesbro (29-13, 3.65), and he is the favorite to win the Cy Young. The other two SPs ('01 Phillipe and '05 Waddell) are just ok (21-17 combined record, with a cumulative ERA close to 5). '02 Tannehill is my main reliever (7-6, 22/28 saves, 4.27), although '03 D.Phillippe has done well also (5-0, 9/9 in saves, 3.07). Maybe I need to use him more often (only 41 ips pitched). I do feel pretty good about this team.

Team #8
Almost all of my teams have more than enough innings. But this 1988 Reds team is pushing the envelope. I needed every roster spot just to get to 1497 IPs. I have only 4 SPs on the roster ('82 Soto, '88 D.Jackson, '91 Rijo, '93 Rijo). These four guys a combined 37-37 with a 6.04 ERA and that includes the 17 relief appearances these four SPs have needed to make. Thankfully, my bullpen has been mostly decent. They've blown 12 of 39 saves, but have a cumulative record of 26-9 with a 3.88 ERA. This is the main reason the team is 63-46 and is leading the A.L. Central by 1 game over a similar 1989 Reds team.

The offense is ranked in the middle of the pack (14th) and we don't have a single player batting .300, despite rostering '94 Paul O'Neill (.359 irl), '76 Ken Griffey Sr. (.336), '87 Kal Daniels (.334), '97 Paul O'Neill (.324), '84 Buddy Bell (.315). In fact, our team batting average is 7th worst in the entire league.

The defense has been great, as we are ranked 1st in fielding percentage and 10th in range. The team has been lucky (14-10 in 1-run games) and has outperformed their expected win% (.578 vs .532). The A.L. is weaker than the N.L., so even if we drop below the 1989 team, we have some cushion for the wildcard.

Posted by schwarze on 10/23/2024 7:19:00 PM (view original):
Round 5

I've been so preoccupied building various Cardinals, Dodgers, Yankees, Cubs and White Sox rosters that I have spent very little time on the Indians and even less time on the Phillies. I literally built these two rosters an hour or so before I selected them. I figured that I liked the team enough - let's pick them and move on.

Team #9
1913 Philadelphia Phillies
This is what I wrote when I selected the team... "I really haven't built any Phillies teams other than the one I built with my first group of teams, which got selected very early (1916). I found a season that I can live with and so I'm just going to grab them now so I don't have to think about Philadelphia anymore. Alexander, Rixey and Camnitz should be enough pitching." This team is just a slight downgrade over the 1916 team that I really liked. Unfortunately, I am in the same division as 1916, 1915 and 1911 so my best shot at advancing to the next round is if we win enough games to get one of the two at large bids. this does feel like a slightly-above .500 team. EDIT: I just set my lineup. I hadn't realized that I have 8 right-handed starting batters. Revised projection: 75 wins.

Team #10
2018 Cleveland Indians
The 1995-1997 Indians were teams I had looked at due to Hershiser and the offense. Two of those three years were gone, and I considered 1997 here, but decided I liked having good pitching better than great hitting. I was very happy to grab one of the only two years that Kluber, Bauer and Bieber all played for the Indians. This year also gave me stud RPs Andrew Miller and Brad Hand, to go along with long reliever Carlos Carrasco. Sure, they're a bit HR prone but you can't argue the crazy low whip. This team has 1693 innings with a cumulative 0.92 whip. The offense has a bunch of lower-OBP, high-SLG guys, including a few switch hitters (which I like). Jose Ramirez, Francisco Lindor, Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion, Melky Cabrera, Michael Brantley, Yandy Diaz make up most of the offense. The tricky thing was selecting a ballpark. Do I select a HR park to help the hitters but hurt the pitching? Or vice versa? I went with a unique slant by taking Hilltop. The main SPs are all right-handed plus Donaldson and Encarnacion are my biggest HR hitters (both right handed). Guys like Brantley, Cabrera, Lindor have fewer HRs (I selected '16 Lindor for his SS defense). I don't normally like taking teams in that late 2010's or later, but I couldn't pass up getting great pitching especially given that most of those 1990's teams won't have great pitching. (Also, I purposely stayed out of the Joss-Speaker league). This team could approach 90 wins if my lefty RPs don't get killed at Hilltop.

I spent very little time researching these two teams and it definitely shows in the results.

Team #9
Thru 48 games, my 1913 Phillies were sitting at 29-19, the #1 seed in the N.L. I was patting myself on the back, thinking that I made a great pick this late. There isn't that much difference between 1913, 1915 and 1916, I was telling myself. Fast forward to game #109. The 1913 team is 53-56 while 1915 is 65-44 and 1916 is 61-48. What the hell went wrong? Well, Both 1915 and 1916 has George McQuillan (x2). 1916 also has Chief Bender (x2). More importantly, both 1915 and 1916 have SS Dave Bancroft. Meanwhile, I have Howie Camnitz and Earl Moore pitching and '14 Sherry Magee at SS (32 errors, only 5 + plays).

This team is 3rd in pitching (behind 1916 and 1015) but is dead last in runs scored. I thought '14 Sherry Magee (.314/.380/509 irl) would be my best hitter, but he's been basically my worst hitter (.227/.284/.407). He is 2nd on my team with 16 HRs, but at .227, he's basically turned into Dave Kingman.

My 1919 Pete Alexander has rotated between starting and relieving. He is 7-15 with a 4.11 ERA and also 7/10 in saves. This makes him the 2nd worst '19 Alexander in the league. My bullpen has been terrible. I can't tell you how many 4-5 run leads we've blown late.

My revised prediction of 75 wins seems to be about right. The hitting is too right-handed and the "vs LHP" and "vs RHP" stats bear that out. I probably should have spent a little more time researching other Phillies teams. gworear's 2022 Phillies was taken 2 spots after 1913 and that team is 61-48.


Team #10
Thru 43 games, my 2018 Indians team was 25-18 (+40 run differential) and the was the #2 seed in the A.L. Currently, they are 54-56 with a -29 run differential. The offense is terrible (17th) and the pitching is even worse (20th). For anybody that wants to know how bad HRs are for pitchers, my team is ranked 3rd best/lowest whip but are ranked 2nd in most HRs allowed. Great whip + Bad HRs = Bad overall pitching.

My supposedly awesome stud RPs ('14 Carrasco, '16 A.Miller, '17 A.Miller, '17 Hand, '20 Hand, '20 Clevinger) have combined for 311 games, 220.2 ips, 34 HRs (1.39 hr/9), and an ERA of 5.59. That's not a misprint - my RPs are averaging only 2 outs per appearance (due to an average pitch count of about 11 pitches per player per appearance). Clearly, Hilltop was the wrong ballpark as my offense is below average in HRs yet my pitchers are allowing them in bunches.

Forget about 90 wins. Basically, this was a wasted pick and I don't really expect much from them the rest of the season. They aren't even getting unlucky (12-11 in 1-run games). The A.L. West is weak (the top team, 2019, is only 58-52, 4 games ahead of my team).

Posted by schwarze on 10/22/2024 2:08:00 PM (view original):
Round 6

Six teams left to select. I am waiting on the Yankees, Dodgers, White Sox and A's, mainly b/c I still have multiple choices for those franchises, but also b/c I want some additional information on what league/division I will be playing in.

Team #11
1908 Chicago Cubs
The 1907 Cubs was one of the very first rosters that I built and they went very early (pick #6 by calhoop). 1906 went at pick #10 (nocomm999) and 1909 went at pick #12 (ejstockman). This 1908 roster is nearly identical to all those other rosters, but for some reason this season lasted to pick #21. Everybody knows the key players on all of these teams so I don't need to go over that. But can all four of these teams finish above .500? Not so sure. The NL Central has 1910, 1911, 1913 and 1916. All these teams have great pitching and below average hitting (compared to the late 1920 and early 1930's teams). I do think that the wildcard team and the two at-large bids will come from these two divisions, so that's 5 out of 8 teams advancing. Which three teams do not advance? Maybe it comes down to 1-run game luck? I will go conservative and predict a 81-81 season for 1908.

Team #12
1962 St. Louis Cardinals
I had two Cardinals teams loaded in my Draft Center, 2012 and 1962. I really liked 2012 with Berkman & Beltran, but decided it would be more fun having two Stan Musials on my team, plus Carpenter and Wainwright don't ever seem to do well for me. Red Schoendienst will be starting at 2B and SS. Ken Boyer and Minnie Minoso will battle it out for the starting 3B position. Bill White at 1B. And Curt Flood provides defense on the outfield. Bob GIbson, Larry Jackson and Curt SImmons provides ore than enough SP innings, while Lindy McDaniel, Bobby Shantz, Ray Sadecki and Ray Washburn will pitch in relief. We narrowly avoided playing in the NL with all those Hornsby teams. We have a similar roster to mllama54's 1963 unit. I would expect that both of our teams will be fighting it out for the division title. Prediction 85 wins. Note that 2012 was taken by 3dayrotation in round 7.

Team #11
As I expected, all eight teams in the N.L. East and N.L. Central are winning at a high rate. In fact, the worst team out of these eight is 59-51, while the best team in the N.L. West is 58-52. There could be two teams with 93+ wins fail to advance to round 2. My 1908 Cubs are currently 65-45, but have been very streaky. They started 21-23 with a terrible record in 1-run games (3-9). Then they had streaks of 9 wins in 10 games, and later, 10 wins in 11 games. They just completed an 8 wins in 9 games streak, but have since lost 4 straight to drop into 2nd place in the N.L. East (1 game out of 1st, but 2 games away from not advancing to round 2).

On of the key moves I made which may have correlated to the winning streak was to bench who I thought was the team's best hitter, '11 Frank Schulte (.300/.384/.534 irl). He was hitting a pathetic .232/.323/.394. His 22 HRs in real life might normalize well in standard leagues, but against all the deadball pitching, they are useless. Instead, I started Solly Hofman, who is an upgrade on defense. Overall, the offense has been terrible, ranking 20th in runs scored. The pitching is ranked 2nd best (behind 1906). My two Mordecai Browns are ranked 1-2 in Cy Young. '08 Brown is at 19-11, 2.50. My '09 Brown is at 21-11, 2.77. No complaints there. '05 Ed Reulbach (4.26) has been my 3rd SP and he has been the league's 3rd worst. But '09 Overall (23/28 in saves, 3.13) has been better than expected.

With all of us N.L. East & Central teams having basically the same roster, it's still going to come down to 1-run game luck. I went from 3-9 to 14-10 in 1-ru names, but am now at 14-12 with the two recent losses. I knew what I was getting into when I selected this team, so let's play it out and see where we fall.


Team #12
Even though I was disappointed to not get to play the 1933 Cardinals team that I thought I selected in round 2, this selection is working out fine. These 1962 Cardinals are 61-49, and are currently in 1st place in the A.L. East, 4 games ahead of mllama54's 1963 team. The offense is only ranked 18th even though '48 Musial (.347/.431/.582) is 2nd in the MVP race. Part of the problem is that I got stuck with a bad '53 Red Schoendienst. Mine is hitting .280/.324/.406... easily the worst of the six '53 Schoendiensts, in the league. The others are hitting .334, .324, .313, .309 and 306. Somehow, I also got stuck with the worst '46 Stan Musial. The other '46 Musials have OPS of .990, .957, .957, 924. Mine is at .843. I assumed Robison Field would help my lefty batters.

The pitching is somehow ranked 4th, even though my '68 Bob Gibson (10-7, 3.84) has been pretty mediocre. The other six '68 GIbsons are averaging 14-8, 3.67 ERA... all playing for teams with a worse record than mine. Ironically, my '69 Bob Gibson (9-7, 4.90) is outperforming the other "second" Bob Gibsons (most took 1966 Gibson). My other two SPs, '64 Larry Jackson (9-13, 5.01) and '63 Curt Simmons (7-8, 4.63) aren't great, but apparently are doing better than the other '64 Jackson and '63 Simmons.

The bullpen is all over the map. '68 Lindy McDaniel is only 2-for-8 in saves, but has a 3.79 ERA. '60 McDaniel is 14/16 in saves, with a 4.79 ERA. '59 Bobby Shantz is 8-2, but 4/7 in saves, with a 4.21 ERA. Overall, we've blow 13 of 40 saves.

Considering, I was the 20th person to select a Cardinals team, I can live with this performance.

Posted by schwarze on 10/22/2024 2:35:00 PM (view original):
Round 7

We're finally at the point in the draft where teams I have in my team center are not getting taken anymore. So now, it's basically deciding which of the multiple choices to actually use. There is a lot of analysis of division alignment prior to my pick, which will be apparent as I describe why I picked each of the remaining teams.

Team #13
1933 New York Yankees
I had at least 4 different Yankees seasons (from four different decades) to choose from when my turn came up. I won't divulge which seasons I didn't take (for reasons that will become apparent later). I actually had not built any Ruth/Gehrig Yankees teams until the day before I made this pick. I saw that 1930, 1931, 1932 and 1934 had already been selected and I was curious why 1933 wasn't chosen yet. I can't see any reason for this. This roster is virtually the same as the other rosters... Dickey, Gehrig, Lazzeri, Sewell, Ruth, Combs. One difference on offense is that Billy Werber is my starting 3B (A+ range). The pitching has Lefty Gomez, Herb Pennock, Red Ruffing, Wilcy Moore, Jumbo Brown and Johnny Allen. With all the Ruth/Gehrig teams in this league, I briefly considered using 1916 Babe Ruth to have another LHSP. But I just can't justify downgrading from '23 Ruth to '25 Combs in the OF. The other teams in my division include 1930, 1931 and 1932. I honestly can't think of any reason why those teams are any better than my 1933 team. I am going to predict 87 wins.

Team #14
1963 Chicago White Sox
After the first wave of teams got selected in round #1, I immediately started building new teams, I quickly built the 1963 and 1967 White Sox. I was hoping to eventually find a good hitting White Sox team and considered 1991 until they got taken. DarthDurron took 1967 with pick 15, then glowguy took 1964 with pick 16. For some reason, 1963 stuck around until I grabbed them with pick 21. Obviously, the pitching is great with Horlen, Peters, Pizarro, Wilhelm, & Fisher. The hitting is not as good as those Frank Thomas White Sox teams. I actually preferred 1963 over those other 1960's teams because of Nellie Fox. I plan on starting Nellie Fox at 2B and at 3B (upgrading Pete Ward). Don Buford provides some nice OBP in the OF (and is a switch hitter). Joe Cunningham gives me more OBP at 1B and DH. And I have very good defense with Fox, Ron Hansen & Jim Landis having A+ range at 2B, SS, CF. Oh, and OF Charlie Maxwell (.326/.414/.534) will be my best hitter. I had a pretty strong 2000's season queued up, but that team's starting pitching was a bit too light for my taste. The more I think about it, the more I like this team. I waited as long as possible to pick this team because I wanted to avoid being in the NL so we don't have to battle against those Ed Walsh / Ed Cicotte / Joe Jackson teams. We barely got into the AL and compared to most teams in the AL, our pitching is elite. Prediction: 86 wins.

Team #13
My 1933 Yankees are the best team in the N.L., at least according to Exp Win%. Their +140 run differential equates to a .594 Expected Winning%. Of course, a league worst 6-14 record in 1-run games means that my actual record is only 57-54. I know that the plethora of lefty sluggers in the N.L. is bad news for righty pitchers, but my best relievers are getting smashed. '27 Wilcy Moore (2.27 erc#) is 3-8, 8/13 in saves, 5.66 ERA . '41 Johnny Allen (0.87 whip, 1.80 erc#) has a 7.07 ERA. '38 Jumbo Brown (1.03 whip, 2.12 erc#) has a 10.13 ERA. Despite all of this, we're still better than league average in ERA (12th).

Offensively, we are 3rd in the league in runs scored, behind 1931 (Mile High) and 1930 (Bennet Park). We are playing in a pitchers park (Robison Field). We are actually 2nd in "away" OPS and only 7th in "home" OPS. My '23 Ruth .368/.497/..660) is the best '23 Ruth in the league and is 3rd in MVP. TO balance things out though, my '21 Ruth is the 3rd worst in the league (.306/.445/.640). Both of my Gehrigs are near the bottom of the Gehrig rankings. My '27 Gehrig is 6th out of 9 in OPS. My '30 Gehrig is 4th out of 5. I guess my ballpark is hurting my offense more than helping my pitching.

Unless this team starts winning close games, 87 wins will be tough to get to. They aren't even on a pace to advance to round 2, although at least they will win any ties. I predict this team will have the highest Exp Win% of any team that misses round 2.

Team #14
I've drafted some version of the mid 1960's White Sox at least once in just about every juice tournament. They almost always underachieve (usually due to bad luck in 1-run games). I really wanted to pick a different team than the 1963 White Sox. But I determined this was the best option left. I have to say that their 63-51 record is better than I expected. They are currently 2nd in the A.L. East (4 games behind barracuda's 1986 team), but are 2 games up in the wildcard race (ahead of 1967 and 1993). Pitching and defense has been the key. They are ranked 6th in ERA, first in fielding% (.988) and top 5 in range (70+ vs 6- plays). The pitching is led by '67 Joe Horlen (15-6, 3.07, 2nd in Cy Young) and '64 Joe Horlen (13-4, 4.19, 5th in Cy Young). My '67 Horlen is the best of the four '67 Horlens while my '64 Horlen is the worst of the four, so I guess it averages out. '64 Horlen must be getting good run support to be 13-4. The bullpen has been decent, albeit unspectacular. (i.e., a bunch of guys with ERAs in the 3.40 to 5.00 range). But given my history with bullpens, I will take decent.

The offense is ranked 11th overall, which isn't too bad considering this team does not have Joe Jackson, Eddie Collins or Frank Thomas. In fact, I don't have a single player with a sim OPS over .800. Pete Ward (.303/.360/.439) is my best hitter. Note that my strategy of playing '59 Nellie Fox (A/A at 2B) out of position at 3B was scrapped early. That Fox (.306 avg irl) is hitting .234/.298/.325 and had committed 8 errors in 10 games before being benched.

Overall, I am happy with this team's performance, especially given how late I selected them (21st). They are a neutral 13-13 in 1-run games and are on a pace for 90 wins, slightly better than my 86-win prediction.

Posted by schwarze on 10/22/2024 2:59:00 PM (view original):
Round 8

You would think that by this time in the draft, I would know which Dodgers team and which Athletics team I was going to take. But I was still changing my mind minutes before I was posting my choice.

Team #15
1961 Los Angeles Dodgers
I had four Dodgers teams in my draft center. The other three didn't get taken. The deciding factor in my decision is that I wanted to avoid the Maddux/Kersahw league, so I picked a season to get me into the NL. The obvious choices would be a Koufax/Drysdale/Snider season. The years 1960, 1963, 1965 and 1966 have already been selected. As I researched the 1961 roster, I see that was the only season that Turk Farrell played for LA. That gives me 300 innings of very strong long relief, which this team needs. The offense is led by Duke Snider, of course... But Gil Hodges and Frank Howard also have 40-HR seasons. Jim Gilliam and Maury Wills fills 2B/3B/SS. And Johnny Roseboro has A++ arm to curtail the Maury Wills SB threat that we'll be facing. Picking a team this late in the draft, it's unreasonable to expect anything more than .500 - but I am an optimist, so I will predict 82 wins.

Team #16
2000 Oakland Athletics
Once I missed out on 1999, I kind of put the A's at the end of the queue. I expect whichever season I ended up with would suck. So I waited till the very end to try and manipulate which division I would be in and maybe steal a spot into round 2 by winning a very weak division. I had some teams from the early 1970's queued up, but those seasons would end up in NL along with all the Lefty Gove / AL Simmons / Jimmie Fox teams. No thank you. I gambled a bit here. I thought the weakest teams in the AL were the post-2000 seasons, so I selected 2000 hoping at least one more person would select a post-2000 season which would push njbigwig's 1999 season into the AL Central - and that is exactly what happened when 3dayrotation picked 2009. So everything is set up to win this division with 78 wins. So what does this roster look like? The pitching is similar to the coveted 1999 team, with Tim Hudson, Kevin Appier, Jason Isringhausen, Doug Jones leading the way. The offense is not the same. Sure, I get Jason Giambi, Eric Chavez, Miguel Tejada. But instead of Tim Raines x 2 in the outfield, I get Matt Stairs & Ben Grieve. Instead of Tony Phillips at 2B, I get Randy Velarde. At least the defense is very good. Look at how late each of these teams got taken. Prediction: 79 wins, 1st place in the AL West.
.

22. schwarze - 2000

18. Jtpsops - 2001

17. fatboydad54 - 2006

23. 3dayrotation - 2009

Well, I can accurately say that I went a solid 1-for-2 in these two selections.

Team #15
Through 115 games, my 1961 Dodgers are 67-48, in first place in the NL West by 9 games and are currently the #2 seed. We're playing home games in Dodger Stadium, so it's not a surprise that the offense is only ranked 15th overall. But they are ranked ahead of the similar rosters of 1960, 1963, 1965 and 1966. Like some of my other teams, my '54 Duke Snider (.295/.361/.556, 1st in MVP) is ranked as the best of the six '54 Sniders, but my '53 Snider (.222/.289/.381) is ranked last among the six '53 Sniders. I have been using '65 Maury Wills over '62 Maury Wills at SS and that turned out to be the right call, as '65 Wills is 2nd with 19 + plays at SS. '62 Tommy Davis (.308 avg) and '54 Gil Hodges (27 HRs) have also been contributors on offense. Sadly, I had to bench both Frank Howards as they were hitting .196 (107 ABs) and .121 (66 ABs), respectively.

On the pitching side, we are ranked 2nd in the league, but it's not been because of Koufax. '64 Don Drysdale (21-8, 2.88) is first in the N.L. Cy Young race. Both of my two Koufax's are below average, compared to the others. Based on ERA, I have the sixth best '63 Koufax (14-13, 3.87) out of eight. My '65 Koufax (15-11, 3.84) is a little better, ranked 5th out of eight. I would have hope for a little better, considering the home ballpark. '63 Turk Farrell is my long relief/closer and has been solid (13-6, 17/21 in saves, 3.48). '62 Drysdale has a 3.93 ERA but as a Tandem 1 pitcher, he is only averaging about 3 innings per start. Maybe I need to let him pitch more innings (and let his tandem partner, '63 Koufax, pitch fewer innings). The only other reliever of note, '69 Ron Perranoski has been up and down (3-3, 4/8 in saves, 3.94). The other five pitchers that have appeared in a game are terrible 38 earned runs in 43 innings).

Overall, very happy with this Dodgers team, picked 24th overall


Team #16
Here was the key statement from above... " I expect whichever season I ended up with would suck. So I waited till the very end to try and manipulate which division I would be in and maybe steal a spot into round 2 by winning a very weak division." This 2000 Athletics team absolutely does suck. And I did pick the correct division to be in, as the other three teams are a combined 49 games below .500. Sadly, my 51-64 record is still 7 games out of first. Jtpsops' 2001 team is one game over .500 (although his team is 16-10 in 1-run games).

The team has been unlucky. 10-13 record in 1-run games is the high-water mark (we were 7-13 before winning the last three). But it really doesn't matter. This team just isn't very good. They are ranked 16th in runs scored and 12th in ERA. The defense is above average in fielding and range, so at least we got that part right.

'00 Jason Giambi (.322/.441/.561) is ranked 3rd in MVP and he's playing out of position, in LF, making 7+ plays and only 5 errors. But I just don't have enough other good hitters. '01 Giambi (.265/.417/.457) is the worst of the four '01 Giambis in the league. If I have the best version of a player in the league, apparently, it's a requirement that I also have the worst version of his clone.

My team's two best starting pitchers (or so I thought) have been terrible. '03 Tim Hudson is 6-16, 5.53. '93 Kevin Appier is 8-12, 4.90.

The only hope I have is the fact that my team's Expected Winning% is .485, while the other three teams in my league are at .446, .426 and .380. Maybe Jtpsops's 1-run game luck will run out and I can still catch him.

Posted by schwarze on 10/22/2024 3:21:00 PM (view original):
Round 9

During the end-game, I thought it was going to take forever to fill the last few spots on the lesser franchises, but holy cow, things moved quickly. People were snapping up the last few spots. I had started building second teams for the Senators, Tigers, Phillies and Reds. I was able to post the Senators, but somebody beat me to the punch on those others teams (which is fine).

Team #17
1922 Washington Senators
With 15 teams selected so far, my 1970 Twins season was firmly sitting in the NL (only 8 teams selected before 1970). I started to worry that they'd end up with all the Walter Johnson teams. Eventually, 1967, 1965, 1923 and 1928 were taken, pushing 1970 into the AL (whew!). But as things were happening quickly Monday night, I realized that if I took a Senators season prior to 1923, the team would end up in the NL East and push 1925 into the NL Central (with juggernauts 1926 & 1927). Those seasons were the top 3 picks in this league So I quickly put together this 1922 team with basically six usable pitchers (Walter Johnson, Tom Zachary, George Mogridge). The offense is decent with Goose Goslin, Sam Rice, Clyde Milan, Bucky Harris, Roger Peckinpaugh, Donnie Bush & Joe Judge. Ironically, two more early teams were taken, pushing 1923 & 1924 into the AL Central and somehow ronthegenius' top pick (1927) ended up in the NL West, with many weaker teams. This also pushed my 1970 team away from the late 1960's teams and into the AL Central with 1987, 1988 & 2005. Not sure how I feel about that. Anyway, Prediction: 77 wins.

Team #17
Well, I knew I may regret picking this team, but my logic was sound. I figured the 1922 Senators would end up in a very weak NL East division and I was right. The combined record of the four teams in the NL East is 194-270. This represents a 162-game pace of 67.7 wins per team. Simply pathetic. My team is somehow leading the division with a stellar 53-63 record. The team actually started off playing well, jumping out to a respectable 43-39 record. Then proceeded to go 1-13. Since then, 9-11.

I knew the pitching would be brutal after you get past the two Walter Johnsons. We're ranked 20th overall in ERA. What I didn't expect was that one of my two Walter Johnsons would end up sucking, and that is entirely my own damn fault. My 1912 Walter Johnson (17-12 3.56) is ranked 6th out of nine versions. But I stupidly rostered 1918 Walter Johnson (14-19, 4.13) instead of the more popular (and much better) 1913 Walter Johnson. My thought process was that my pitching depth was so thin that I wanted the extra 49 innings that 1918 provided (413 vs 364). But '13 Johnson is crushing it for most teams, while '18 Johnson is near the bottom of all Johnsons. Dumb, dumb, dumb!

The reason my team is doing "this well" is the offense. Currently, this team is ranked 8th in runs scored, led by both Goose Goslins and both Sam Rices. Although none of my hitters are in the top 25 in OPS, most of lineup has an OPS between .750 and .800. In fact, look at this consistency with my top players' batting averages... .342, .315, .310, .308, .307, .305, .303, .303.

Defensively, like most teams from the early years, my team is near the bottom in fielding% but near the top in range (78+ vs 16- plays).

One thing I should mention is that this team has had horrendous luck in close games. Yet somehow, my 11-24 record in 1-run games isn't even the worse in the division (mllama54 is 12-27). My team's .486 expected winning% blows away the rest of the division though (.436, .387, .367). It would not surprise me if this team ends up having the worst record of all the advancing teams. Should lock me into a last pick in one of the round 2 leagues.

Here is a quick summary of my 17 teams, though 116 games...Getting 16 teams to advance is the high-water mark so far, as a few of these teams are 1 loss away from not advancing.
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Team	Pick	W-L	Exp W%	Plyf	Rd2	1-Run	Rank	Off Rk	Pitch Rk	Ballpark	Pace
1917 Boston Braves	1	76-40	0.643	1	1	21-12	3	15	1	Astrodome	106
1915 Boston Red Sox	1	74-42	0.676	1	1	17-9	8	5	2	Robison Fld.	103
1970 Minnesota Twins	5	73-43	0.619	1	1	18-11	12	3	12	Hilltop Park	102
1916 New York Giants	5	72-44	0.664	1	1	12-17	14	4	4	Palace of Fans	101
1901 Pittsburgh Pirates	14	68-48	0.580	1	1	9-8	48	9	5	Palace of Fans	95
1908 Chicago Cubs	21	68-48	0.575	1	1	16-13	51	21	2	Arlington Stad.	95
1961 LADodgers	24	68-48	0.575	1	1	16-16	51	15	2	Dodger Stad.	95
1995 Baltimore Orioles	4	67-49	0.546	1	1	16-8	65	12	6	Yankee Stad. III	94
1962 St. Louis Cardinals	20	66-50	0.562	1	1	16-17	77	18	2	Robison Fld.	92
1963 Chicago White Sox	21	65-51	0.575	1	1	14-13	88	10	3	Robison Fld.	91
1988 Cincinnati Reds	9	65-51	0.524	1	1	14-13	96	15	10	Cinergy Fld.	91
2011 Detroit Tigers	6	64-52	0.594	1	1	12-18	99	13	7	Hilltop Park	89
1933 New York Yankees	23	61-55	0.597	0	1	7-15	138	3	15	Robison Fld.	85
2018 Cleveland Indians	17	57-59	0.475	0	1	12-12	212	17	10	Hilltop Park	80
1913 Philadelphia Phillies	12	56-60	0.473	0	1	19-21	231	24	5	Robison Fld.	78
1922 Wash Senators	22	53-63	0.486	1	1	11-24	277	8	20	Palace of Fans	74
2000 Oakland Athletics	22	52-64	0.490	0	0	10-13	290	16	9	Robison Fld.	73
Total		1105-867	0.568	13	16	240-240		12.2	6.8

Quote post by toysboys on 10/25/2024 1:54:00 PM:
1911 Indians - Didn't catch the post of the tourney until the following day. I wanted to scramble for a good pick right away and I probably made a mistake. I saw 1910 Indians were taken right out of the gate so I looked at 1909 and 1911. It was a choice between Joss and Shoeless. I figured I already had Cy Young and Cy Falkenberg so I'd rather have Shoeless Joe Jackson. I knew it was a good team otherwise with 2x Lajoie. But really this was a dumb pick cause now I have to share a division with the 1910 Indians and the 1909 Indians don't.

This is my only team below the cutoff line for Rd2. And it was my first pick in the draft. Goes to show that you really need to do your homework and not make panic picks.

I went back over my pre-season predictions and it seems I was low on most of my projected win totals. The four teams that won fewer games than projected had a combined record in 1-run games of 61-86. The five teams that were +10 wins (or more) had a combined record of 111-89 in 1-run games.
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Team	Franchise	Year	Pick	Proj Win	Act Win	Diff
1917 Boston Braves	Braves	1917	1	95	107	12
1915 Boston Red Sox	Red Sox	1915	1	95	105	10
1916 New York Giants	Giants	1916	5	90	101	11
2011 Detroit Tigers	Tigers	2011	6	90	84	-6
1970 Minnesota Twins	Senators/Twins	1970	5	88	100	12
1995 Baltimore Orioles	Browns/Orioles	1995	4	90	88	-2
1988 Cincinnati Reds	Reds	1988	9	86	93	7
1901 Pittsburgh Pirates	Pirates	1901	14	86	89	3
1913 Philadelphia Phillies	Phillies	1913	12	75	84	9
2018 Cleveland Indians	Indians	2018	17	90	82	-8
1908 Chicago Cubs	Cubs	1908	21	81	96	15
1962 St. Louis Cardinals	Cardinals	1962	20	85	94	9
1963 Chicago White Sox	White Sox	1963	21	86	90	4
1933 New York Yankees	Yankees	1933	23	87	84	-3
1961 Los Angeles Dodgers	Dodgers	1961	24	82	90	8
2000 Oakland Athletics	Athletics	2000	22	79	81	2
1922 Washington Senators	Senators/Twins	1922	22	77	80	3
		Total		1462	1548	86

Preseason predictions vs results.

2014 Tigers - Prediction: 88 wins (86 wins - won wildcard)

2006 Dodgers - Prediction: 95 wins (98 wins - won division)

2003 Braves - Prediction: 88 wins (99 wins - won division)

2013 Indians - Prediction: 87 wins (83 wins - won division)

1932 Yankees - Prediction: 84 wins (92 wins - won division)

2012 Orioles - Prediction: 80 wins (83 wins - did not advance)

1964 Giants - Prediction: 84 wins (76 wins - won division)

1981 Phillies - Prediction: 84 wins (80 wins - won division)

2008 White Sox - Prediction: 88 wins (80 wins - did not advance)

2001 Athletics - Prediction: 86 wins (82 wins - won division)

2021 Twins - Prediction: 88 wins (74 wins - did not advance)

2006 Reds - Prediction: 81 wins (55 wins OOF! Did not advance)

1920 Browns - Prediction: 84 wins (92 wins, won division)

1918 Senators - Prediction: 79 wins (65 wins - did not advance)

1960 Braves - Prediction: 85 wins (77 wins - did not advance)

Picks 1 and 2:
DET2013
CHC2004
With the 24-hour rule, I had to get my clock started while doing research on the fly. As is usually the case in these leagues, you learn on the fly during the draft. So at this point, I wasn't even thinking about divisional alignment or how similar adjacent teams would be or AL/NL league quality. All those became more apparent and more of a factor as the draft went on.

Anyway, I whipped up some quick heuristics to find some options. I'm the opposite of contrarian23 (the contrarian to contrarian?) and prefer more modern teams. I usually like to fill up all 13 pitching spots, or at least 12 of them, and then make the offense work with the leftover 12-13 spots. This requires a lot of relievers and I did in fact end up with many teams with only 2-3 true starting pitchers.

2013 DET stuck out with some of the 2010s Tigers mainstays led by Miguel Cabrera but I also ended up with clones of Victor Martinez and Torii Hunter. Most importantly, the pitching is elite as you get a strong bullpen of Benoits and Dotels and Smylys but also 4 starters between Verlander and Scherzer. I have this group as the #1 pitching team in the franchise. Of course, had I looked a little harder, I'd have seen that 2014, 2011 and 2012 are all right there with them. In fact, that's my division in the AL West. 2014 likely also has better hitting thanks to the presence of Ian Kinsler. Would guess this era gets most of the AL advancement spots but making the playoffs will prove difficult.

2004 CHC was, in hindsight, a much better pick. Yes, Maddux was back for his second stint in Chicago and he's joined by decent but not great pitching. But the offense is significantly better than surrouding years as it's the only one in which Sosa and Moises Alou (last years with Chicago) and Derrek Lee and Nomar (first years) overlapped. In fact, this got me thinking so I looked up how each season compares in my valuation system compared to surrounding seasons. This Cubs team grades out as one of the best combinations at overall quality AND quality above adjacent teams. Unfortunately, my 2013 DET grades out at the very bottom (as does my 2001 ATL pick coming up next). Anyway, it's a pretty good offense with clones of Sosa, Lee, Alou, and Nomar plus an Aramir Ramirez sprinkled in. Pitching is pretty good with two Madduxes and a solid bullpen.

My Tigers analysis proved mostly correct. This team didn't crush it and get me a high Rd 2 pick but they did win 92 games which was best in the AL and 4th-best overall among Tigers teams. Our Exp% was really good--actually #1 overall for Tigers--but our 1-run was actually above .500 so I guess must have been some blowouts in our favor. The pitching was best in the AL and the offense was good enough, slightly above average. We held off 2014 by 6 games for the division.

No disappointment here for my 2004 Cubs as they won 98 games good for 3rd-best among all Cubbies and 2nd-best in the AL. Our offense was 2nd and defense/pitching was 3rd in the AL and we cruised to a division title by 17 games. 1988 beat us out but getting away from all the early 1900s Cubs teams was the biggest benefit.

Picks 3 and 4:
ATL2001
PIT1991
As I mentioned, 2001 ATL is a great team but they're smack dab in the middle of the Braves great run and all the teams from 1995 to 2003 were picked. My division ended up being 98 through 01 so it's gonna be a gauntlet. Now, I do think 2001 is the best of that era (and the best of all the Braves teams) because you're the only team with Caminiti and Gilkey, plus one of only 3 with Marcus Giles (2B is notoriously a weak spot for the Braves). The bullpen also gets the Steves (Karsay and Reed) making it the best 'pen of the group. With Caminiti in the fold, I'll be playing Chipper out of position at 1B (Brogna does give a good partial here as well) as well as at DH. Two Andruw Joneses in the OF. Lopez/Perez dynamite duo at catcher. The pitching is elite with two Madduxes, two Smoltzes (one in relief), a Millwood and a bunch of good relievers. Competition will be stiff, but I think this team has enough separators to win the division.

Another tough era, though not as long, but my 1991 PIT pick is right in between 1990 and 1992 and we all ended up in the same division. 1990 is probably the best of the group thanks to Moises Alou and Jerry Reuss, but barracuda3 took them 2nd overall among Pirates. 1992 went right ahead of me (7th) and my choice was 8th. Still, I have these as the 3 best Pirates years so hopefully can eke out a wild card spot and advance with 90+ wins for a good pick next round. Plus, this team will be fun--two Bondses, two Bonillas, two Van Slykes, two Jay Bells. Bonillas defense at 1B/3B is weak and catcher (LaValliere + Slaught) isn't great, but that's a fun offense. Drabek and Rick Reed will try to win enough games with a smattering of solid relief arms (amazingly, no clones among them with 7 unique relievers).

This played out about as expected. There were a ton of teams in this Braves era that did well including both 2002 and 2003 but my 2001 team was able to tie for the best AL record with 99 wins (tied with 2003, 2 games ahead of 2002) and only the 1917 Braves were better overall. #3 in offense and #2 in defense. We were lucky to get out of the AL West and into the Central where we avoided 02 and 03 and won the division by 15 games over 1999 and 2000.

I'd say my Pirates team was a slight disappointment. barracuda's 1990 team crushed it winning 102 games so we had no chance at the division, but we did win the wild card with 88 wins and finished 3rd-best in the AL. The offense was pretty good as expected, 3rd in the AL, while the pitching and defense were almost exactly average. Solid playoff and advancement team but for my 4th pick it ended up being just my 12th-best team.

Picks 5 and 6:
LAD2022
CIN1978
In retrospect...whoops! Holy crap the 2021 Dodgers are stacked AND get Albert Pujols, Max Scherzer, and Trevor Bauer in their lone years in Dodger blue. 2022 does counter with Freddie Freeman and Craig Kimbrel at least, plus Trea Turner is on board which he's not for our other division-mates 2020 and 2024. This era is so stacked that I had 2017-19 as 3 of the top 10 seasons and they didn't even get taken. This is another team where a playoff spot may be a tall task but advancement should be doable. My lineup is Betts x2, Freeman x2, Turner x4 (Trea and Justin) plus a Bellnger and Muncy for lefty power. I went with Muncy's bat over another Bellinger glove, meaning I'll play one of my Freddie Freemans in RF. Pitching will be awesome compared to normal teams but average in the Dodgers AL. I went with 2016 Kershaw's 149 IP as two Buehler clones and two Gonsolins gave me enough innings. A pair of Kimbrels along with Treinen, Phillips and Chris Martin form a formidable bullpen. I probably can't beat out jfranco77's 2021 for the division title but maybe we have enough for a wild card run.

1978 CIN isn't in as much of a predicament but 1977 is likely slightly better thanks to some more pitching with Gary Nolan, Woodie Fryman, and Joe Horner (they rightly went #1). Still, I have 1978 as the 2nd-best CIN team so maybe a wild card berth could happen. The one advantage I do have over 1977 is Ken Henderson in CF, though it's a small one with plenty of other options there. The lineup is awesome with two Roses, two Fosters, two Benches and of course two Morgans. I also rostered some great partial seasons with Champ Summers, two Griffey Sr. seasons, and a Rick Auerbach. My pitching staff is nearly all clones with two each of Seaver, Soto, Sarmiento, and Bair. I added a Dale Murray and Tom Hume. Reds teams are always fun.

Pretty much nailed it with my Dodgers prediction. jfranco's 2021 team absolutely cruised to 105 wins and division title. Despite winning 97, we never really threatened but that was still good enough for a wild card and 3rd-best record in the AL (behind 2021 and 2006). This was my 5th pick and ended up as my 5th-best team, not bad!

This Reds team barely edged out 1977 on the last day of the season to win the division by a game. There were actually 4 AL teams with 92-93 wins, we ended up #1 on the advancement rankings (barely) but this was really a 4-way tie. #1 offense in the AL by +204 runs above average and the pitching did just enough, finishing just a bit below average. Only two teams from the NL had better record so this was the 3rd-best Reds team overall.

Picks 7 and 8:
PHI2019
STL2007
I like my 2019 PHI pick. 2020 did go just ahead of them but we luckily ended up in different divisions. The offense is mostly a wash as all the studs are the same and there's not much difference between Neil Walker and Cesar Hernandez at 2B. 2020 does get Zack Wheeler but my 2019 gets much more in the way of relievers--David Robertson, Pat Neshek, Drew Smyly, Seranthony Dominguez, etc. The separator for these teams is Arrieta (2018 to 2020), who joins Nola to lead the staff. I also get McCutchen (2019 to 2021) to pair with Harper in the OF. The rest of the lineup is a bit of a hodgepodge but Segura, Realmuto and some decent partial seasons should be enough with the top half of the lineup and elite pitching.

2007 STL lingered around probably because 2005 is so dominant in this era of the Cardinals. Mostly that is Larry Walker adding to the Pujols/Edmonds/Rolen/Molina core. 2004 also has Walker but no Wainwright. 2007 does have a little bit more pitching thanks to adding Percival, Pineiro, and Springer to the bullpen. The offense can't match up to losing Walker but Ludwick, Rolen, and Chris Duncan all have some pop to fill in at DH/RF. Unfortunately, we did land in the 2005 division so again, winning the division will prove difficult. I clearly should have looked at division alignment much sooner!

While my record was a bit disappointing at 92 wins, this team played a little better than that with a 19-25 1-run record and .602 Exp% (+34 points above my winning percentage). Just overall solid performance, 3rd in the AL in both runs scored and runs against. 4th in the AL and 5th overall in wins. Won the division by 8 games, thankfully avoiding the 2020 Phillies who did end up beating me by 4 games though I had the better Exp%, as expected it was close between those two seasons.

Probably my most disappointing team, this Cardinals team did advance as the last team in the AL but they were my 18th qualifier so they got dropped. The offense was below average in a tough AL. As expected, 2005 crushed it with 103 wins. As I'm typing this, I just selected 2004 in the Rd 2 draft. That's either really dumb because this 2007 team was mediocre or really smart because 2005 was awesome!

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To be continued...

I love these retrospective analyses as much as (maybe more than?) the initial commentaries. Time permitting, I will do on this weekend.

But I have to dock myself some huge points for this entire passage from my original post:

Round 6:
1979 Yankees, 1952 Red Sox
At the time I posted that I love one of these and hate the other. As a diehard Sox fan, it pains me to say that I love the Yankees pick here. But the 79 Yankees are one of my favorite twist teams. Guidry, Tiant, Hunter, Righetti, Gossage... we should easily have the best pitching in our division, and we're in the AL so we miss the Ruth/Gehrig teams entirely. Might be my best team in all of round 1. We'll see.
The 52 Sox absolutely suck. I waited way too long to take a Red Sox team, so this one is just for fun, with the Williams clones and Lou Boudreau holding down the fort at C and SS. The pitching is horrible; we may give up 2000 runs.

It's rare that I am so so so completely wrong about my teams. Far from being "my best team in all of round 1," the Yankees tied for the worst record of all of my round 1 teams. That's "SI claiming the Indians were the best team in baseball in their 1987 predictions" terrible. They DID have the best pitching in the division (by a wide margin) and in fact the entire league (AL+NL), but the offense was execrable. Stuck in an inept division, we still almost pulled out an undeserved playoff spot.

To add irony to irony, the team that I hated picking, that I thought was "horrible" and might "give up 2000 runs", that I only picked because I wanted a Ted Williams team in this league, actually finished over .500. I think in another post somewhere, maybe the league chat, I prognosticated that the 52 Bosox might be the worst team in all of round 1 (every league, not just the Red Sox league). They actually allowed only 983 runs (when your margin of error is over 50%, that's an, um, bad prediction.) Fewest runs allowed of any non-deadball team in the NL and even beat out the 1913 and 1914 Sox in that category. '44 Dizzy Trout went 27-15 and for much of the season led the NL Cy Young race, before regressing to the mean a fair bit in the final 50 games.

Overall, I would say most of my early assessments proved pretty accurate, but boy did I miss big time on these two.

Posted by crazyamos on 10/22/2024 1:06:00 PM (view original):
I wasn't planning on returning to this tournament. I've entered 1-2 teams a few times, almost always advanced to the final or second to last round and that's it. But I had some time free, fiddled around a little and then jumped in, emphasizing FUN as much as strategy here!

Team One - 1923 Yankees
Only one Gehrig/Ruth team had been taken, the 1931 squad with its absurdly good offense Who wouldn't want to enter a team with two Gehrigs and two Ruths, though? If you wouldn't, you don't know how to have fun on this site. I came close to grabbing the 1928 squad (which was picked right after me), but in the end I decided that 2 Carl Mays and 2 Bob Shawkeys was worth more than 2 Stan Coveleskis. I also thought double Wally Schang over double Bill Dickey and a couple other offensive differences wasn't much of a downgrade. It'll be fun to watch the stats accumulate for my top four hitters, and I'll be curious to see how the 1923, 1928, and 1931 squads perform against one another.

Team Two - 2005 Cardinals
I thought of the Cardinals because their earlier seasons have some stunningly productive players like Hornsby, Mize, Musial, and others the modern squads can't compete with. I grabbed these guys because two Cris Carpenters and two Wainwrights plus some great RPs make for a very fine pitching staff, alongside all of the Pujols, Larry Walker, Rolen, Edmonds magic that makes for excellent offense and defense. I'll be disappointed if this team doesn't win 90.

Team Three - 1974 Red Sox
I know the Sox better than any franchise in baseball, by far. Their deadball pitchers, Speaker, Ruth, Ted Williams, and Jimmie Foxx are extraordinary. And Pedro is Pedro, of course. That said, this is my favorite of all the Sox twist years and by far the favorite team I scouted, even if they don't end up being the most effective. A rotation of two Juan Marichals and one Luis Tiant, with another Tiant in relief is just incredibly fun fantasy baseball. Maybe they give up way too many HRs, but in between Lefty Grove and Roger Clemens, this is by far the best pitching you're going to find for them. I mean, getting my top 1463 IP in at a total WHIP under 1.00, that doesn't happen (I don't thing for any Sox squad between 1919 and 1986.) Add to that a crazy wealth of legendary hitters from my childhood and just before - Yaz and Rice and Lynn and Fisk's two greatest seasons each, Dewey Evans' and Cecil Cooper's best, Rico Petrocelli's magical 1969 campaign, and so on - and even seeing this squad on paper makes me smile. It'll continue to do so over the next two months, regardless of how they perform.

Well, all three of these teams advanced.

The 1923 Yankees won 88. There were 7 Gehrig-Ruth teams. And there were 2 Ruth only teams.
The Gehrig-Ruth teams won 77 to 92 games. The median was 85 wins. The two Ruth only teams from the early 20s won 82 and 88.
No distance between those choices. Probably a bit of luck that we won our division and definitely that this team is now in the World Series.

The 2005 Cardinals did in fact win 90. Not only that, they won 100 - 103, in fact. They got me into the top 16 overall and within one game of making the World Series in their league. The rotation of 2 Wainwrights and 2 Carpenters posted ERA from 4.07 to 5.11, and the top 6 hitters - OF, DH, and corner infielders of Walker x 2, Edmonds x2, Pujols x 2, and Rolen x 2 were very, very good.

And the 1974 Sox were very fun to play with, as I hoped, and did better than I thought, winning 93 and running away with their division. We were knocked out in the first round of the post-season, but they were as fun as I thought I'd be. The 2 Yaz, 2 Lynn, 1 Petrocelli, 1 Cooper, 1 Evans, etc. offense was fun and prolific. The 2 Juan Marichals did not pitch very well, but Luis Tiant did. And 1968 Bob Veale also did better than I thought he would.

Round 1:
1915 White Sox, 1903 Pirates
These are two of the worst franchises in history for elite SP. Thankfully, that's not true for the deadball era. The White Sox bring over 1200 elite innings from 1908/1910 Walsh and 1917 Cicotte. Bullpen is very strong with 19 Cicotte, 16 Benz, 15 Wolfgang, and 16 Russell. Offense should rake with clones of Eddie Collins, Joe Jackson, Jack Fournier (one of my WIS favorites), and the 1922 OF version of Reb Russell. Excellent defense for the era. I'll be surprised and disappointed if this team doesn't win 90+ games.
The Pirates pitching is not quite as good, by Cy Falkenberg, Jack Pfiester, Deacon Phillippe, and Sam Leever should do Ok. Clones of Wagner and Fred Clarke anchor the lineup. A+ range at 5 positions. Don't know if we can beat schwarze's 1901 Bucs, but this team should be decent.

Both of these teams ended doing very well. The White Sox went 99-63 and romped to a division title by a whopping 26 games. With lots (not-filler) PA and IP, I put them in Mile High; they led the league in runs scored with 1216 and posted a +250 run differential. Rare for a deadball team, they also fielded very well, except for my Eddie Collins at 3B experiment, which I aborted 2/3 of the way through the season. Unfortunately, they lost in the first round to a very good 1917 team.
The Bucs managed to win a division title in a VERY tough division and league, in which 4 teams ended up with 89 or 90 wins and the final playoff spots came down to game 162. I almost cost myself a spot by taking too long to remove 07 Leever from the rotation. 08 Wagner was great; 01 Wagner was not. At least on offense; he did win the GG at 3B Had 01 Honus performed up to expectations with the bat, I think this team would have won 95 and had a little breathing room. As it was, they managed to beat a tough 1912 team in the LDS before getting swept by the 101-win 1913 squad in the LCS.

Round 2:
1940 Tigers, 1917 Phillies
The Tigers also have execrable SP throughout their history, especially once I took the Verlander/Scherzer teams off the table with my "no modern teams" rule. 1940 gives them 2 Newhousers and 2 Trouts, along with 1946 Rowe as a stud closer. Offenses has clones of York, Greenberg, Gehringer, Averill. A+ range at SS (Bartell). We're in a division with 3 teams that will likely be very similar, so anything above 81 wins will feel like a bonus.
I had to have a Pete Alexander Phillies team. Ultimately went with 1917 because it brought Cravath, Bancroft, Evers, and 1911 Schulte to anchor the offense. They also have Charles (formerly known as "Chief") Bender who turned into a very good 2-man bullpen, as well as excellent defense for the era, with A+ range at SS (both Bancrofts), 1B (the 1910 Paskert has often approached 40 plus plays for me), and good seasons from Stock and Whitted. We lucked into a division with 1930, 1957, 1964 (away from the other Alexanders). I like our chances to win 95+ here.

I was a little optimistic about the Phils; they won "only" 86 games but still had a relatively easy run to the division title given the competition noted above. Very lucky we avoided the division-of-death NLE. 19 Cravath hit 24 HR in just 291 AB - really wish I could have played him all season! Unsurprisingly, we faced the very similar 1915 and 1916 squads in the postseason, sweeping the 1915 club before bowing to 1916 4-2 in the LCS.

Could not have been more pleased with the Tigers. They won 98 games and posted the second best record in the entire Bengals league; of course the best record was posted by the similar - and Pedro Cerrano-led - 1939 squad, so we settled for a wild card. Got our revenge by beating 1939 in the LCS and this team is currently up 2-0 in the World Series. Greenberg-Gehringer-Averill all performed about as expected; Bartell picked up 32 plus plays at SS. We did give up more than 1000 runs, but still managed to allow the fewest in the NL. Both Newhousers won 20, and 46 Rowe had a terrific season as closer (12 wins, 27 saves), 2nd in the FOY award to his doppleganger from the '41 club.

Round 3:
1921 Indians, 1988 Twins
With the Joss Indians and Johnson Senators largely gone by this point, I needed to pivot. The Indians should still have excellent pitching with Coveleski, Wood, Ray Caldwell, and a number of other guys who would be in the rotation for some of my later selections. Tris Speaker clones anchor a potent offense. I'm expecting close to 400 doubles for this team. Divisional alignment is again our friend as we avoid the Joss teams. kstober's 1922 will probably look very similar, but I like our chances against the 1949-50 clubs.
Once you leave the Johnson-era behind, the Twins pitching for most of their history is execrable for a league of this caliber. In retrospect, I think I should have gone with a Johnson-era club in round 1. But since that was now moot, 1988 lets me use Carlton clones for the first (but not last) time. Combined with Blyleven, a decent Joe Niekro, and the 1981 Reardon, the staff here is about as good as I think you can put together for this franchise - again without Johnson. Unfortunately, this may be the worst offense of any of my 16 teams. How the Twins ever won 2 WS titles in this era is beyond me, and probably says something about the overall quality of play in MLB in the 1980s. We're in a division with 1987 (which I expect will have a very similar roster) and 1970 (the Oliva/Carew tandem will be formidable, and Killebrew clones may hit 20 HR apiece just against my pitching staff), so I don't have high hopes here.

The 21 Indians made it 5-for-5 in playoff appearances for my first 5 picks. This club was every bit as much fun to play as I had hoped. We finished 2nd to the very similar 1922 team, with a final record of 91-71. But I had thought all season that we might be dangerous in the playoffs when I could go to a 2-man rotation of 17 Coveleski and 12 Wood. Sure enough, after dropping the first 2 games of the LDS to the 1910 team, we ripped off an 11-1 streak to take the World Series title. Outscored the opposition 110-55 in the postseason, and our 3 losses were all by 1-run. One of the most dominant postseason runs I've had a team deliver in my almost 20 years on this site.

Alas, the run of playoff teams did have to come to an end eventually, I guess, and the 88 Twins came in at 81-81, never really threatening in the AL. Led by 72 Carlton, the pitching was excellent, allowing the 2nd fewest runs in the AL, but the offense was terrible. I'll go to my grave believing that the 87 Twins were one of the worst ever teams to win the MLB title; Hrbek, Gaetti, et al just don't match up well with the great hitters in baseball history.

Round 4:
1970 Cardinals, 1959 Reds
Let's do Carlton clones again! With 2 Gibsons, and an offense that includes multiple Torres, Allens, Brocks...got a good divisional draw here - avoided the other Gibson teams. 85+ wins here, i think.
The Reds are...not good. 1959 lets me sneak in clones of Cuellar and Newcombe, The OF can hit, the infield cannot, and we're in a division with 2 of the Big Red Machine teams. We have A+ range at SS and 2 OF spots, but that might not matter when Bench, Perez, Foster, Morgan, et al are taking Newk deep 4-5 times a game...

Pretty much nailed the predictions here. The Cards won 88, but never threatened the '90 squad for the title or the late-Musial-era clubs for the WC. Dick Allen is one of my favorite SIM players and both clones did very well. I rarely try to steal in high cap leagues, and I shouldn't have here as the Brock clones and Jose Cardenal went 82-for-130 in SB attempts, which certainly cost us runs. Don't think it cost us 5 games (and hence a playoff spot) but it might have. So that one's on me.
The Reds were, as expected, not good. Turns out it was the offense that was the real problem, as we easily scored the fewest runs in our division, which included the 72 and 73 clubs. Our 77-85 mark exactly matched our Exp Pct.

Round 5:
1973 Orioles, 1959 Braves
Was all set to take a deadball-era Browns team when Pedro grabbed them a few hours before my spot was due up. You guys all know what this team looks like: Palmer, Cuellar, McNally, a decent pen, excellent defense, mediocre offense. We certainly will miss having Frank Robinson in the lineup, but the good news is our divisional draw puts us against 1976, 1981, 1995, so we may sneak into a playoff spot.
You all know the 1959 Braves as well. It's a typical Spahn/Mathews/Aaron team of the era, with a couple of nice additions: Schoedients, Avila, Mickey Vernon, Enos Slaughter. 81 wins would be a success here, but who knows? We're in the NL, so we avoid all the Maddux teams, and the Braves never really had great pitching. That 1917 club with Walsh will be interesting, for sure.

Again, pretty much nailed the predictions. The O's offense was middle-of-the-pack; the pitching and defense were very good, and the divisional draw did help us as we won 91 (actual PCT .562, Exp Pct .566) and the division, before bowing to WC 1998 in the LDS. The Braves won 84 (not 81), but again a divisional draw helped us as we won by 3, and then took out the very similar 1958 club in the LDS before bowing to WC 1964 in the LCS.

Round 6:
1979 Yankees, 1952 Red Sox
At the time I posted that I love one of these and hate the other. As a diehard Sox fan, it pains me to say that I love the Yankees pick here. But the 79 Yankees are one of my favorite twist teams. Guidry, Tiant, Hunter, Righetti, Gossage... we should easily have the best pitching in our division, and we're in the AL so we miss the Ruth/Gehrig teams entirely. Might be my best team in all of round 1. We'll see.
The 52 Sox absolutely suck. I waited way too long to take a Red Sox team, so this one is just for fun, with the Williams clones and Lou Boudreau holding down the fort at C and SS. The pitching is horrible; we may give up 2000 runs.

I covered this earlier. Blech!

Round 7:
1928 Dodgers, 1966 Cubs
I like these Dodgers. The Vance clones, Babe Herman on offense, and A+ range at 5 positions (1B, 2B, SS, 2 OF - hello Max Carey, I see you there). Given the divisional draw, I like our chances.
The Cubs are not good, but lucked into a division with 1933, 1935, 1940. They just might be the best of a weak crop. Banks, Williams, Santo, a nice Harvey Kuenn, Robin Roberts and Fergie on the mound with Abernathy in the pen. If we hit more HR than we give up, we might sneak out a division title with like 83 wins.

28 Dodgers: Stop me if you've heard this before... our divisional draw helped us a lot. The Dodgers won 85, but that was easily enough to take the NLE. (Actual PCT .525; Exp Pct .521). '25 Max Carey was a stud, the offense was overall very good (most runs in the NL) and the excellent defense delivered more than 100 plus plays which the pitching, especially after the Vance clones, certainly needed. I had high hopes for this team in the postseason, especially after we swept the '56 club in the LDS, before being easily and summarily dispatched by 1955 in the LCS.
66 Cubs: Stop me if you've heard this before...our divisional draw helped us a lot. The Cubs won only 75 games (Actual PCT .463; Exp Pct .462), but that was enough to eke out the division by 1 game over 1933. Unsurprisingly, the '04 Maddux Cubs easily dispatched us in a 3 game sweep. Putting this team in the "other" Wrigley Field may have been a poor choice. We hit 229 HR, but allowed 261. 52 Roberts was great, but 54 Roberts (72 HR allowed), 74 Jenkins (66 HR allowed), and 70 Jenkins (36 HR allowed in just 132 IP before losing his rotation spot to 63 Ellsworth) got raked.

Round 8:
1970 A's; 1968 Giants
Nothing special about either team; both are in divisions with almost identical clubs (1967-70 Giants in AL East, 1972/1975 A's join the 1931 Grove/Foxx mosters in the NL West). Not expecting much from either team.

Well, if I almost screwed the Cubs with my park selection, I absolutely killed the Giants by putting them in Coors. 55 Mays loved it (.334/.410/.651, 33-for-40SB, 61 HR) as did 69 Stretch (.329/.463/.659, 50 HR)...but poor 66 Marichal (114 HR allowed in 287 IP). We hit 267 HR, but allowed 320 (!). I don't think this club was gonna win anyway but put our under-.500 mark squarely on me.
The A's were in good shape to win a close division up through game 130, when someone flipped the Jtpsops switch on this team. They completely fell apart down the stretch, going 9-23 even though I was pitching 72 Hunter and 71 Blue for about 3/4 of those games (and not fatigued either). I take some solace in knowing that no one was (or is likely to) beat Pedro's 1927 juggernaut.

Really enjoyed round 1. GL to all in round 2.

Posted by redcped on 10/25/2024 6:11:00 PM (view original):
I didn't build a lot of teams, nor did I ever consider trying to get into every league. I started out with two teams, found a couple more I liked the next day, etc. Was going to stop at 6 but forced a 7th in. I just don't love trying to manage 20+ teams at once and already have about 10 seasons active.

I've played only an occasional twist league and don't have anywhere near the encyclopedic knowledge of some of the greats who played a season or two on another team, so I undoubtedly missed a lot of better picks just from not having time to keep digging. Generally I found a team I liked for a franchise after researching the team history a bit, built a roster to see if it worked, and picked it. I only had one built team I didn't enter, but now I see I could potentially use it in Round 2. Though of course I deleted it to enter my final team ... alas.

I think this is in the order I picked my teams, or at least close to it.

2024 Dodgers: This is the franchise I know best, and of course I thought about Pedro, Maddux and Koufax seasons too. But I thought it likely only a few people knew that Dinelson Lamet pitched a couple games for LA this year, and I knew I could only use one Ohtani hitting season so his best pitching season would work well, too. So I have a rotation of two Kershaws (13 and 15), Lamet, 22 Ohtani and 21 Walker Buehler. I had way more bullpen stalwarts than I could roster, going with an all-righty group headed by 23 Ryan Brasier's LA partial, 18 Blake Treinen and 22 Evan Phillips, all at 1.21 ERC# or below. Plus 23 Phillips, 19 Tyler Glasnow, 10 Daniel Hudson and 18 Buehler as a spot starter, and it's really a deep pen. The toughest call was having to go with just 12 and cut my best lefty.

On offense, of course I get the one and only 50-50 guy, a pair of Mookies at 2B and RF, a pair of Freddie Freemans at 1B and LF (he'll be fine out there, right?), and some nice supporting characters in Max Muncy, Will Smith, Miguel Rojas, Teoscar Hernandez, and Jason Heyward. The power is outstanding, and the base stealing even better (213 out of 246 attempts, 87%). None of the recent LA catchers can throw decently, but the Campanellas might slow us down some. Are there possibly better Dodger teams? Yeah, I'm sure if I'd built 5 or 6 of the ones that popped into my head I could have made arguments for them. But I felt this would be a really deep team and figured no better time to roll out the 24 Shohei than here as the World Series kicks off.

1977 Reds: I've played a couple Reds only leagues and found the lack of pitching pretty notable, though obviously I didn't research the guys who only played a short time but had great seasons elsewhere. So I knew Tom Seaver joined the team in 77 and would want to look in his era and capture most or all of the Big Red Machine lineup. 77 worked best because I can get 78 Mike Caldwell and 82 Mario Soto to complete the rotation. Plus Joe Hoerner and Dale Murray had fine relief seasons elsewhere, so that felt like a solid enough staff.

The toughest choices involved how to use Pete Rose and configure the defense as effectively as possible. With more depth in the OF, I decided to stick a poor-range 69 Rose at 1B and grab 70 Bob Bailey for the bulk of the 3B time (with 74 Bench taking the rest). 77 Foster will have to man CF with B range, flanked by 68 Rose and a platoon of 75 Griffey and 76 Foster (who will actually play 1B against LHP with Rose moving to the OF). That leaves me with 75 and 76 Joe Morgan to play 2B and DH, 72 Bench, and 76 Concepcion elsewhere. Not sure how to use 292 great PA from 79 Champ Summers, but I know the Morgans need rest. Having too many good bats is usually a good problem.

1911 Cubs: My experience in Cubs franchise drafts also told me that there's not as much talent in the last 60-70 years as you'd think. My only question was whether there was enough hitting on a deadball team to be competitive. The pitching obviously would be there. I landed on 1911 to get the usual suspects (Browns, Reulbachs, Pfiesters) along with a fine 1918 Fred Toney to anchor the pen. Other than Toney, I suspect my pitching looks a lot like the rest of my division.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how many punchy bats I could assemble for this team, though. Chance had a couple good years, Evers hit .341 once, Heinie Zimmerman is a beast, plus there's some good production in Jimmy Sheckard and Frank Schulte and Solly Hofman, among others. Plus a whole lot of A range around the diamond to help those pitchers. Feels like a team that can eke out a few runs even against the studs from the Aughts, I think.

2004 Red Sox: I didn't take a Dodger team with Pedro or any team with Maddux, so this was my best opportunity. The Curse Breakers also had Schilling to bring a couple good SP seasons as well as Derek Lowe's great SP and RP seasons. Toss a couple Keith Foulkes, a couple LOOGYs, and the unhittable and unpredictable 04 Scott Williamson, and you've got the makings of an interesting pen. Williamson will probably walk two guys and exceed his pitch count immediately half the time, but we'll see what happens. I used him once and he surprised me. But of course every team here can hit a ton out of the ball ...

Speaking of offense ... so many good choices here. I started with a pair of Nomars, which left only 1B for David Ortiz unless I play Nomar OOP. I had forgotten how good 96 Ellis Burks is, and that left me only one spot for a Manny. I figured I could use his amazing 08 partial as much as possible and his 532 PA 00 season for the rest out in LF. Plus a Damon, Mueller, Varitek and Pokey Reese bringing one good glove out there at least. It's a pretty horrific defense, frankly. Pedro and Schilling had better strike a lot of guys out.

1943 Cardinals: You can never go wrong with wartime Cardinals, I have heard it often said. I have usually done pretty well using some incarnation of these guys, so why not here too? It's all the usual pitching suspects: Mort Cooper and Harry Brecheen with the biggest load, plus old pals like Munger, Pollet, Lanier, Gumbert and Brazle. Thankfully not the always disappointing Ted Wilks, though.

Of course you have to make sure you get a wartime season where Musial was stateside, so he's the centerpiece. Harry the Hat's .371 season usually plays nicely, and I always like Johnny Hopp, Whitey Kurowski and Walker Cooper. Not sure where to play Debs Garms and Frank Demaree, but there's a lot of talent to spread around the OF for sure. The middle infield is a bit of a drag and not great enough defensively to make up for the lack of offense, though.

1970 Orioles: I had to find a season where Frank Robinson was on the team as well as McNally, Palmer and Cuellar to form a rotation. I think a season or two had already been picked in this time period, but I honestly can't remember. I just knew I could count on a good set of bullpen options and great defense with this era, so I went for it. The pen will have some Dick Hall, Eddie Watt, Moe Drabowsky and Pete Richert covering all the innings I need.

It's not a particularly scary offense, though. The F-Robs are the stars, but it's a drop from there with the likes of the one good Brooksie offensive season, Boog Powell, Bobby Grich (beating out Davey Johnson at 2B), Don Buford, and Paul Blair. Super PH Roger Freed will hit for Mark Belanger a lot!

1924 Tigers: I thought I was done but found a little time to look deeper at a couple franchises with a lot of spots left. I found the collection of bats on this Tigers team tempting enough to see what they can do against a franchise low on pitching studs in their history. The only saving grace pitching wise is I get one great Dutch Leonard season to key the rotation, and after that it's just cannon fodder really. I have two versions of Hooks Dauss and Syl Johnson for chrissakes ... plus Earl Whitehill, the bane of 16x16 leagues with his one tolerable 35-inning season. We're gonna give up heaps of runs.

But that's OK, because I think this team is going to score all day and all night. The lineup has a pair of Ty Cobbs, Harry Heilmanns and Charlie Gehringers, plus Heinie Manush, six of which hit .371 or higher. Yeah, they'll normalize a bit, but it's still going to be a tough team to slow down. I've even got 3 catchers who hit at least .344. And I don't even have room for Bob Fothergill (.367/.421/.506) or Al Wingo (.370/.456/.527) in the lineup. Plus, I stuck them in Palace of the Fans just to up the ante. The box scores should be entertaining, no matter how things go.

I've enjoyed the "how did that work out for ya" posts here, so I figured I'd drop one too.

2024 Dodgers: 77-85 (.475), Exp% .485. 4th place
Positives: Ohtani hit beautifully (.308/.375/.579), won MVP, led the league in HR, SLG, OPS and stole 61/74 for good measure. Lamet went 20-9, 2.77 and was one of the best pitchers in the league. A couple relievers did pretty well, too.
Negatives: Everything else. 2023 Mookie (.217/.325/.362), 2023 Freeman (.241/.300/.387) and Max Muncy (.131/.240/.236) were particularly bad. I can't even fathom Muncy's stats there. I wound up playing Tommy Edman at 3B most of the time. (Note that I have rostered the same Muncy in my R2 team, proving I am unteachable.) 2013 Kershaw was really disappointing (10-22, 5.58), and I'm going to use 2014 next round instead. The real shock is that this performance didn't scare me away from taking 2023 in R2. I just have to believe some of this was aberration.

1977 Reds: 92-70 (.568), Exp% .576, 2nd place, missed playoffs by 1 game
Positives: 75 Morgan (.358/.473/.574) won the MVP and 69 Rose (.332/.406./478) was 3rd. 76 Morgan and 77 Foster hit 36 HR each and drove in 144 and 142, respectively. Several other hitters were quite productive. 73 Seaver (24-10, 4.29) won the CYA. My main setup guys all pitched really well.
Negatives: 68 Rose (.264/.325/.337) contributed little and found his way to the bench in the second half. 72 Bench hit 30 HR but with just a .209/.317/.395 slash (he did throw out 55% of base stealers). 71 Seaver (15-13, 6.20), 78 Caldwell (12-24, 6.59) and 82 Soto (15-14, 6.89) struggled to get outs all season.

1911 Cubs: 104-58 (.642), Exp% .635), won division by 8 games, won WS
Positives: Just about everything here, though with few individual standouts. Neither of my Browns was top 25 in ERA but they went 56-29. 05 Reulbach (20-13, 4.62) was a solid 3rd SP. Toney didn't get as many innings as I'd hoped, but he was very good (11-7, 43 saves, 3.66 ERA). Had we gone to a Game 7, he would have received his first start of the season. Johnny Evers drove in 104 without hitting a HR, then he hit a WS-winning 10th-inning walkoff homer in Game 6. Go figure.
Negatives: Hard to nitpick when you post the league's best record. No one really underperformed badly.

2004 Red Sox: 91-71 (.562), Exp% .571, won division by 6 games, lost in 1st round
Positives: 00 Pedro was his expected great self, 19-7, 2.97, co-led league in WHIP (0.94). 08 Manny (.410/.475/.640) made the most of his 255 PA. Ellis Burks was surprisingly our only 20+ HR guy, putting up 28, stealing 48 and slashing .297/.354/.489. Both Nomars hit well. Williamson was a pretty effective closer (3.68 ERA, 25/27 saves). The setup guys were mostly pretty solid. We stole 152/190 (80%) and hit 349 doubles (3rd in the league).
Negatives: The power was surprisingly low, particularly 07 Ortiz managing only 9 HR and 00 Manny just 18. The Nomars, who averaged 24 in RL, hit just 24 between them. 99 Pedro was a pedestrian 10-13, 5.00, and 02 Lowe was 11-14, 5.67. My pitchers mostly underperformed, and so did my hitters, so that's a weird combo when you still win 91 games and basically match your Exp%, too.

More to come ...